892 MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. 
Several plants produce large quantities of a silky cotton- 
like substance, not applied to any use, such as the Silk Cotton 
tree (p. 264), the Mudar of India (p. 306), several species of 
Saccharum (p. 32), &c., which might be collected where labour 
is cheap, and would no doubt be well fitted for conversion into 
pulp for paper. [So also the Dogbanes and Asclepiads, 
pp. 302-3. ] 
[The Nepal Paper plant (Daphne cannabina) has been men- 
tioned above, and is treated of at p. 311.] 
Among the Nettle, the Mulberry, and Bread-fruit tribes 
of plants (p. 840), there are many which seem well calculated 
to yield material for paper-making. The Chinese we know 
employ the inner bark of Morus, now Broussonetia papyrifera 
(p. 841). This, no doubt, produces some of the Chinese 
paper, which is remarkable for toughness. I believe that the 
refuse cuttings of the bush cultivation of the Mulberry in 
Bengal (p. 343) might be turned to profitable account. The 
barks of many stinging (Urtica), and of stingless (Boehmeria) 
Nettles (p. 344), abound in fibres remarkable for strength ; the 
tow of these might be converted into paper-stuff if not required 
for mixing with wool (p. 358) [as might also the bark cloths, 
p. 842]. 
The weeds of tropical countries which grow in such luxu- 
riance, and among which are species of Sida (p. 262), of 
Grewia, of Corchorus, of Triumfetta (p. 253), and of many other 
genera, might all yield an abundance of fibrous material, if the 
refuse of the above cultivated plants were found not to be suffi- 
cient. Some simple machinery for separating the fibre would 
greatly facilitate operations, while the expenses of freight might 
be diminished by compression, or, as suggested, by packing the 
material as dunnage. The cheapness of labour, as of every- 
thing else in many of these countries, would enable material 
for paper-making to be brought here in great abundance and 
at a sufficiently cheap rate, if ordinary pains were taken by the 
consumers in Europe, to encourage the planter or colonists of a 
distant region. 
I have, &c., 
(Signed) J. Forbes Royxe. 
East India House, May 8, 1854. 
